


I Need You

by obs3ss1ons



Category: Station 19 (TV)
Genre: Celebrations, F/M, Family Dinners, Idiots in Love, Making Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 15:46:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obs3ss1ons/pseuds/obs3ss1ons
Summary: For Day 1 of Station 19 Theme Week:Andy and her dad go out to dinner to celebrate his remission and end of treatments. He surprises her by inviting Ryan along. Dinner does not go the way she expected.





	I Need You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fandommatchmaker19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandommatchmaker19/gifts), [madnephelite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madnephelite/gifts).



> I am trying to function on almost no sleep over the past week. My brain is struggling to form coherent thoughts and make sense of anything. However, I wanted to contribute to Theme Week, so I will force something out for as many days as I can. I can't promise they will be any good, and I'm sure there will be mistakes. I apologize for both.

She was running late. Her dad was going to be upset. At least they made plans to meet at the restaurant. He could get them a table. Order the wine and appetizer. She’d already told him to get whatever he wanted. He deserved it. They were celebrating, after all.

Her dad was officially in remission. The cancer was gone. The treatments were done. He could return to the life he enjoyed before – with a few changes, of course. Andy refused to move back in with him. She loved living with Maya and having freedom she couldn’t have living with her dad. But she still made sure he ate well and took his medication regularly.

Andy reached the restaurant and hurried inside. She told the hostess who she was meeting, and the lady led her into the dining room. A smile graced her lips when she spotted her dad at a table halfway across the room. But then she realized he wasn’t sitting alone. The person had his back to her, but she was pretty sure she knew exactly who it was.

“Ryan? What are you doing here?” she asked as she reached them.

He stood and pulled out a third chair. “Your dad invited me.”

She took the seat he offered while glancing to her dad. “You did?”

Her dad nodded once. “I did. Ryan has been a big help to me over the last few months. I thought he should be here to celebrate as well.”

“Oh,” Andy replied, picking up her menu. She gazed over the options quickly and made a choice just as the waiter showed up. After they all ordered and the waiter left, Andy asked, “So how is your dad doing, Ryan?”

The look he gave her was a borderline glare, but he said, “He’s in prison. How do you think he’s doing?”

“I’m just asking,” she defended.

“Maybe you shouldn’t."

“Let’s not fight tonight, you two. This is a celebratory dinner. My celebratory dinner,” Pruitt declared.

Both Andy and Ryan mumbled their apologies. They then fell into a silence filled with tension. Andy refused to look at Ryan. She couldn’t stand to see the anger and hatred he seemed to feel toward her lately. All she’d done was say what she thought about his dad like he asked her to. Yet he got mad at her. He chose his worthless father over her.

It hurt worse than when he broke up with her. And that had torn her heart right out of her chest. She loved him, always had. Being with him made her happy. Happier than she’d been in a really long time. So when he took that away from her, her entire life fell apart.

Thinking back, that was when she began spiraling out of control. When she lost all sense of who she was as a person and a firefighter. She blamed Sullivan. His way of running things just wasn’t what she was used to. But she figured out fairly quickly that it wasn’t the new captain. It was her. For the first time in her life, she didn’t have her dad right there all the time, and she didn’t have Ryan in her life.

“So what are your plans now that the treatments are finished?” Ryan inquired.

Pruitt answered, “I have a meeting with Chief Ripley tomorrow to discuss my future in the department.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Andy protested.

“I’m telling you now,” her dad replied.

“What do you think will happen?” Ryan pressed on.

Their food arrived. Pruitt waited until the waiter walked away again to say, “Honestly, I’m not sure. I hope he doesn’t agree with Sullivan about me retiring. I’m not ready for that.”

Andy picked at her food with her fork and commented, “You would go crazy if you retire.”

“I wouldn’t have survived this long if Ryan didn’t stop by as often as he does,” Pruitt admitted.

“It’s no problem at all, Sir,” Ryan told him. Andy eyed her childhood best friend and ex-boyfriend. It appeared he had built quite a relationship with her dad. She didn’t know when that happened, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it.

“Dad, I can stop by more often. Tell you about the calls we go out on,” she tried.

He patted her hand. “It’s okay, Mija. I know you have a busy life now.”

“I don’t mind spending time with him,” Ryan added.

Andy glared at him. “He’s my dad, Ryan. I can take care of him.”

“I’m sure you can,” Ryan replied.

“You don’t need to,” she added.

“I want to,” he said, staring into her eyes. Andy tried not to cringe at the fire she saw in his. Why were they doing this? Fighting over who got to spend time with her dad. He wasn’t Ryan’s dad. His dad was where he belonged – where he should’ve been long ago.

“That’s enough,” Pruitt stated, tossing his napkin onto the table beside his plate. In his no-nonsense, low tone, he told them, “I am going to go talk to an old friend I see over there. By the time I get back, I expect you two to work out whatever it is going on between you. You have been friends for too long to go on like this. Fix it.”

“Yes, Sir,” Andy and Ryan chorused. Pruitt stood and sent them both what Ryan had termed his “do it now" look. Then he walked away. Andy watched him walk to another table across the room and greet one of the men.

She turned back to meet Ryan’s gaze. The expression in his eyes had changed. It was more gentle, with some hurt showing through. He moved some food around his plate. Then he said quietly, “I’m not trying to take your dad from you.”

“What?”

“Your dad is amazing. Sure, he’s stern and hasn’t always liked me. But he’s been helping me out as much as I’ve helped him,” he explained.

“With what?”

Ryan sighed and looked down at his plate. “With my dad.”

Andy watched him. Clearly everything going on with his dad really bothered him. And she’d left him. Well, technically he stopped talking to her, but she could’ve pushed back. She could’ve kept trying to stay in touch with him, checked in on him. Asked him how he was handling his dad being in prison.

She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” he asked.

“For being a terrible friend,” she admitted. “I knew you were hurting, but I chose not to do anything about it because I was mad at you.”

He sucked in a long breath. “I really could use a friend. Your dad has been great, taking me in the way he has. He’s become like a second dad to me. Actually, I’ve always seen him that way.”

“He is great.”

“But I can’t cry on his shoulder when it all gets to be too much. He focuses more on protecting me than telling me what I need to hear,” Ryan continued. “But you don’t. You tell me exactly how it is and what needs to be done to fix the problem.”

“I’m sorry for what I said about your dad, Ryan,” Andy started.

He held up a hand to stop her. He looked into her eyes. “I need a friend to be there when I need it. But I can’t be friends with you. Not anymore.”

Well, that’s not what she expected to hear. “Umm, well, okay then.”

Ryan reached over and grasped her hand. She was too confused to pull away from him. He said, “I can’t just be friends with you, Andy. I need more from you.”

“Like what?”

He glanced over her shoulder before meeting her gaze again. “I love you. I have for a while. Before we dated, actually. And I can’t ignore it any more.”

“Ryan-"

“Don’t say anything. I just wanted you to know.”

Andy hesitated. She started to say several different things, but none of it sounded right. Then her dad came back. He sat down and picked up his fork again. “Did you two work everything out?”

Neither replied. Andy ate a small bite of her food. Ryan sipped his drink. The waiter appeared, asking if anyone wanted dessert. Pruitt answered for all of them, “We’ll all have a slice of the famous chocolate lava cake. We’re celebrating tonight.”

The waiter nodded and left. Andy pushed her plate away even though she’d only eaten half. Ryan’s admission surprised her. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him. She wanted to believe him. But she was scared to because she’d wanted to hear it for years.

Andy knew she was in love with her best friend before she joined the academy. She figured it out the day she received her admittance letter. It was why she told Ryan before she told her dad. His reaction that night broke her heart. Their friendship declined after that until he left for the police academy.

Then he showed back up in her life – literally next door once more. Her heart convinced her it was a second chance with him. Her relationship with Jack suddenly changing helped prove to her that the timing was right. And she was happy with Ryan.

But yet again he left her, turned away from her. She wasn’t sure her heart could handle that happening again. He said he loved her, but she knew from experience that love wasn’t enough. At least not for them.

Their cake arrived, interrupting Andy’s thoughts. Her dad raised his glass. “Here’s to me kicking cancer’s ass.”

They all clinked their glasses and sipped some wine. Then the two men dug into their cake. Andy stared at hers, wondering if Maya would like to share it with her. They could devour it while Andy talked out her feelings for Ryan. Again.

“Are you going to eat your dessert?” her dad asked.

She offered a weak smile. “I think I might take it home. I’m pretty full.”

“You’ve hardly eaten anything,” Ryan pointed out.

Andy looked at her still half-full dinner. “I’m just not hungry.”

“Andrea, what’s wrong?” Pruitt inquired, grasping the fingers on the hand closest to him.

She shook her head. “Nothing, Papi. I’m fine. Enjoy your cake.”

He didn’t believe her, she could tell. But he let the subject drop. So did Ryan. Pruitt picked a happier topic to chat about while they finished eating. Andy joined in as much as she could, but she kept losing focus. All she could think about was finishing her conversation with Ryan.

Eventually her dad decided it was time to leave. Ryan paid – despite a nearly heated argument about it being her idea. Then the three of them left the restaurant. They stopped out on the sidewalk, and Pruitt told them, “Thank you both for getting me through everything. And for dinner tonight. I know you’ll both be visiting me even when I don’t want or need you to. So I only have one request.”

“What's that?” Andy asked.

“I want you two to get over whatever happened between you. I can see the pain you both feel. You’ve been through too much to let it slip away. Now I know you’re adults, and you can tell me to mind my own business all you want. But I care about each of you and want you to be happy. You can’t do that without each other,” Pruitt explained.

Andy shared a glance with Ryan. Then she told her dad, “We’ll try, Dad. You know I’d do anything for you.”

“Me, too,” Ryan added.

Pruitt nodded. “Good. Now I’m going to go home. You two have a good evening, and I expect to see a change in you both soon.”

“Yes, Sir,” they said for a second time that night. Pruitt walked away toward his car.

Andy faced Ryan. “He’s right, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ryan agreed, running his fingers through his hair. Andy didn’t stop a smile from touching her lips. She loved it when he did that.

“So…what do you say we go somewhere and talk?”

Ryan replied, “Why don’t we just go for a walk?”

Andy nodded. They strolled down the sidewalk side by side. They were a block away from the restaurant when Andy finally said, “I love you, too, Ryan.”

His head whipped around toward her. “You say that so casually.”

She shrugged. “Because I’ve felt it for so long that it’s natural.”

“Yet you never told me.”

“I tried. Several times,” she admitted. “I just didn’t want to ruin our friendship. God, I sound like a cliché.”

Ryan shook his head. “I’ll never stop caring about you, Andy. There is nothing you could say that would make me stop loving you.”

“See, I didn’t know that.”

He smiled down at her and linked his fingers with hers. “Well, now you do.”

They walked some more, their hands entwined. Andy asked quietly, “Where do we go from here?”

Seconds passed before Ryan answered, “I think we need to talk before we go anywhere else. Set some ground rules.”

“I agree.”

Ryan stopped walking and turned to her. “I know I’m the one that walked away, and I’m sorry. I’ve missed you.”

Andy squeezed his hand. “I’ve missed you, too. I’ve missed this.”

“So, I think we can agree that we need each other. That’s a start, right?”

She nodded. “It is.”

He stared at her. She stared at him. Then he dropped her hand but grabbed her head. His kiss was gentle, hesitant. At least until Andy kissed back. Then it became desperate, needy. Andy put all of the love she felt into the kiss. She needed to show him exactly how she felt.

Ryan pulled away, but their breath still mingled. He smiled brighter than she had seen in a while. “What do you think about taking this somewhere more private?”

“What about the ground rules?”

“We can do that later,” he said and kissed her again.

Andy broke it this time. “We can’t go to my place. Maya is there, and I don’t want to try to explain this to her until we know what it is.”

“I don’t have any roommates,” Ryan informed her.

“Your place it is, then,” Andy stated. They shared one more quick kiss before grasping each other’s hand again and heading back toward the restaurant. They reached Ryan’s car first and decided to ride together. She could pick her car up later. Right then, all she cared about was getting to Ryan’s home so they could make up, however they ended up doing it


End file.
